Subtlety

SUBTLETY.

Honestly, I feel as if this is an art, an ideal, a praise, a virtue that has been forgotten in fashion and specifically in femininity. I'm not trying to get up on a little soap box here, but seriously: we totally flush down the drain pipe having class or subtle showcasing of our best features when our ideal of attractive becomes shorts that might as well be underwear and only a bandeau on top.

How is that showcasing your features? It isn't. Honey, it's LITERALLY showing your half naked body.

There is something so beautiful and feminine about dressing in a way that accentuates some of your features and then loosely flows around other areas. For example: wearing a loose floral blouse two sizes too big but then having super cute jeggings and some boots. Second example: wearing a strapless sundress that's loose on the bottom instead of skin tight. On this windy day at the beginning of fall, I went along these same lines with a close fitting top and then billowy skirt. And I felt so comfy and free! But also elegant.

I'm not saying we should run around in potato sacks. Just please, every time you dress, consider for what purpose you are wearing that piece. Is it to trip men up? To convince someone to use your body? Maybe even to just get attention? All these things are needy desires...petty wishes (note: as a woman I've been guilty of all these motivations as well). What about wearing things that make you feel confident and respected? Beautiful and funky? Things that draw people's eye to you because you're feminine, classy, and subltle.

MOST importantly though: please always remember that it holds more worth to be praised for your mind than for what adorns your body.

So maybe that is the most subtle beauty of all...knowing that many will like your outfit but not needing/craving that praise because you already know that your worth is in something FAR greater than a cardigan.

Shirt: H&M

Skirt: Old Navy, Shoes: XXII

Let's keep it classy ladies and gents!

HAPPY FALL!! I can't wait for pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and apple cider :)

My handsome photographer

Columbus OH

This is sort of recapping from a couple weeks ago, but I really want to save this lovely memory! The week before school started, I had a mini summer vacation visiting my best friend in Columbus, Ohio. I really like Columbus--not enough to live there, but it's a great not so touristy place to visit. It has all kinds of cool shops, antique stores, local restaurants, kinda college-y atmosphere in some parts, and an awesome yearly Irish Festival in August. Plus, Tory and I took a road trip there our senior year of high school so visiting brings back really great memories :)

I only get to see this delightful lady twice, maybe three times, a year...which, after you've spent a decade growing up seeing each other every day, never EVER becomes less difficult. Her birthday is in a month so I hope to see her beautiful face again!!

I was mesmerized by this incredible collection of Lady Di stamps

Beanie babies in an antique store?? WHAT THE HECK! We are NOT that old.

I have cravings for Philadelphia rolls

Red velvet cupcake

Oreo cupcake thaaaat I'd already half eaten

Someone's watched Indiana Jones one too many times...

More pictures coming soon!

There and Back Again

Home sweet home in Chicago again! I miss this city more and more each year after I leave it for a couple months. Naturally, being in Chicago means friends, my darling man, new things to be learned, and living on my own again. I had to wait a week preparing things for gospel choir and working at the coffeeshop while Levi wasn't here yet. So what was my coping mechanism being here without him....PINTREST. I swore I wouldn't join so that I wouldn't become addicted--too late! Let's just say someone got 100 plus pins after only a week of membership....

But now life has been filled with city exploring, froyo, Oak Street beach at night, kisses in the rain, and loads of laughter.

Needless to say, it's good to be back ;)

Jamba Juice smoothies before a beach day :)

It was so good I couldn't stop drinking to to take the picture haha

I will conquer this beach with my pasty skin!

He stole my ferocious pose..silly man

We will kiss sweet kisses, and speak sweet words: O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten when the sharp clear twang of the golden chords runs up the ridged sea. Who can light on as happy a shore all the world o'er, all the world o'er? Whither away? Listen and stay: mariner, mariner, fly no more." excerpt from The Sea-Fairies by Alfred Tennyson